It Could Happen Here - Grenada with Andrew, Pt. 1

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

In the first of two parts, James and Andrew talk about the events of the revolution in Grenada and those leading up to it. Sources: Grenada: Revolution and Invasion byPatsy Lewis et al None Shall Escape by FundiSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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So there's a revolution long forgotten that was tucked in a corner of the Caribbean. For those outside of the region, it's probably quite far from mind. You know, when most people think of Caribbean revolutionaries,

they think of Cuba. But at the time, the rise and fall of the Grenada Revolution was everything. Hello and welcome to Icarapen here. I'm Andrew Sage, your Trinadian host of It Could Happen here, and I'm joined by... James, you're American British co-host. American British? Yeah, I don't really know how to say that. Which order should that hyphen be in?

Yeah, yeah, I don't know which way I'm supposed to hyphenate. because we don't hyphenate white people, which is a very American thing. But yeah, glad to be here. I always enjoy learning more about this part of the world from you. I'm glad. I'm glad. And, you know, as we speak, I'm hearing helicopters overhead. And it's really a reminder of the times that we are living in.

Last night, there were quite a few stealth helicopters flying overhead, quite close to the ground, about three of them. Wow. All the lights were off. So it seems to be a ramping up an escalation in some ways, or just a continuation of the existing military presence. Yeah, geez. And as we're talking about military presence in the U.S.,

which is something that I spoke about on this podcast before, if you go and check it out, we're here to discuss the very recent history, positive and negative, of my northern neighbor, Grenada. So I don't want to bog anyone down with too many facts, but it's important to get an idea of the context. So Grenada is the southernmost in the grouping of Caribbean islands

known as the Windward Islands. It's a country composed of Grenada, the island, and a few smaller islands, including Kariaku and Pitimarsneet. It's long been considered the Spice Isle as the hilly mainland was and still. is home to a lot of nutmeg plantations. They currently have a predominantly African population of just over 117,000,

sharing a country merely 344 kilometers squared, or 133 square miles. For reference, the five boroughs of New York City collectively make up 778.18 kilometers squared or 300.46 square miles. So Grenada is small. You know, New York is big, but Grenada is also quite small.

You know, for reference, it's slightly larger than Queens, but far less populated and far less dense. It was talking small island state par excellence, and yet it has sat at the center of one of the most critical events in Caribbean history. And it might be one of the sites of yet another such incident. In light of the United States' request to Grenada on October 9th to establish a temporary military radar base at the infamous Maurice Bishop International Airport, a request which has not yet received a conclusive response more than a month later at the time of me recording this. So I thought it apt to finally talk about this moment in history. I went to my library and got a copy of Grenada, Revolution, and Invasion,

a compendium of essays from various perspectives on the topic arranged by Patsy Lewis et al that provided the basis of my research, particularly the essay by Mill Collins, a Canadian poet, and novelist. I also drew some of the radical background lower from Fundy, a.k.a. Joseph Edwards, an underappreciated autonomous radical healing from Jamaica, who spoke about the situation, a nun shall escape, all linked in the show notes. So I don't want to get too deep into the history prior to what's immediately relevant to today's topic. I'll keep things brief. A couple hundred Amerindians

lived in Grenada prior to the European invasion. Human settlement may have been as early as 3,500 B. CE, but most definitely by the second century C.E. Spain upon stumbling upon it, claimed it but never settled it. England attempted to settle it, but was driven out by the indigenous inhabitants. And eventually, the island was settled and subjugated by the French, who engaged in a protracted war against the indigenous between today's Grenada, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadians throughout the 17th century. You know, there's this narrative that the Europeans came and they just easily conquered the entirety of the Americas. And it's important to lay that myth to rest.

There was, of course, the very tragic great dying that was responsible for a vast majority of the indigenous population losing their lives to the disease. In some cases, intentionally weaponized by the Europeans. But despite differences in their weaponry, the Europeans did not have an easy time conquering the islands or conquering the Americas. at all. In many cases, they did not succeed in conquering islands for many decades or centuries of struggle. But eventually, Grenada was established as a colony of over 15,000 enslaved Africans by 1763. A year prior, in 1762, Britain took over the island from the French as part of

the Seven Years' War, and the island was formally ceded to Britain in 1763. By 1807, Britain had brought 114,000 slaves to Grenada. By 1838, slavery was abolished. In 1877, Grenada became a crown colony and fast forward a little further under modified crown colony status, the wealthiest 4% of Canadians were allowed to vote. Eric Gehry founded the Grenada United Labour Party or Gulp in 1950, initially as a trade union, which led to the 1951 general strike for better working conditions. Buildings were set on fire in this time, and this is in a broader regional context of radicalism and agitation for independence in the post-World War II reality, which would intensify after many of the islands had already gained their independence.

Eventually, Greenina got elections based on universal adult suffrage in 51. and Eric Gary Sparty, Gulp, won. This is before they got independence, though, in a time when the English-speaking Caribbean was trying to establish a West Indies Federation between 1958 and 1962. It didn't succeed. Jamaica succeeded and then turned out,

so it fell apart. And after the fall of the Federation, Grenada became an associated state in 1967, then finally gained full independence from Britain in 1974, again under the leadership of Eric Geary, who became the first prime minister of Grenada. The late 60s and early 70s were a radical time in general. So that's setting the stage for what comes next in Grenada. The rise of the new Jewel Movement led by Maurice Bishop.

You see, as funnly found, in this time we also had quite a few other confrontations going on, across Hispanophone, Francophone, Dutchophone and Anglophone, Caribbean. In 1965, you had the popular revolt in the Dominican Republic against a military coup. It was drowned in blood by the U.S. invasion. In 1967, you had a spontaneous rebellion of agricultural workers in Guadalupe. In 1968, black folks in Bermuda rioted against the racist and clueless control that dominated the island. In 1969, there was a violent confrontation against U.S. soldiers by students and workers protesting the U.S. occupation of the Panama Canal Zone. Curacao was shaken by wildcat strikes of workers.

Riots were employed and unemployed as well. Labor unrest is breaking out in Suriname leading to a general strike. Antigua had riots strikes and demonstrations over several years. Jamaica had workers at the Western meatpackers, established democratic control of their trade union local, taking full control over their union dues, and negotiating the employer without official mediators to manage the sugar workers in the local community directly.

And of course, infamously, in 1970, Trinidad was shaken up as workers, academics, and small farmers linked up against the system led by the government of Prime Minister Eric Williams, and after years of his rule under the slogan Massaday Dunn, the people erupted against the neo-colonial system. Despite being ruled by this black leader, the hundreds of people in the streets championed black power, understand that what was needed was a people's power. politics in which new institutions could emerge. This Black Power Revolution in Trondard was inspired in part by the Black Civil Rights struggle in the United States, while also seeking to unite the African and Indian populations in Trondad. After an attempted mutiny by the army and Venezuelan and American gunboat standing by ready to intervene, the military surrendered. The revolutionary initiative shifted away from the masses

and Dr. Eric Williams was saved. By 1973, a few armed guerrillas remained. in the hills of Trinidad, but eventually their struggle was snuffed out by 1975. In Guadalupe, you had wildcat strikes taking place. Guyana had wildcat strikes against the American and Canadian-owned bauxite companies. Suriname had another general strike. St. Lucia experienced a wildcat strike. Dominica attempted to seize the British-owned Castle Bruce Estates. In Jamaica, there was a wave of appropriations from banks, warehouses, stores, cotton shops and more, cross Kingston, and demonstrations initiated by students and workers against police brutality and for the release of prisoners.

And in 1979, Nicaragua had their revolution against the U.S. Allied government. Being a parent is basically a juggling act. Dinner, hockey practice, homework, a last-minute science project, and someone's always, always shouting, for you from another room. So yeah, I'll take any shortcuts that actually works, and that's why I'm all in on Hello Fresh. Fresh ingredients, super easy recipes, and over 80 options every week, so everyone eats. No one complains, and I get to feel like I've got it all together, at least for dinner. And the best part, you're in total control. Skip a week, pause any time, pick what

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in an intimate setting. Every episode's a little different, but it all involves music and conversation with some of my favorite musicians. Over the past two seasons, I've had special guests like Dave Grohl, Leve, Mavis Staples, Remy Wolfe, Jeff Tweedy, really too many to name. And this season, I've sat down with Black Pumas, Alessia Kara, Sarah McLaughlin, and more. Check out my new episode with John Legend. I feel like, in a lot of ways, our careers are paralleled in some ways, but they just never intersected for some reason. I know. While all of this is going on, Renada had a population of less than 100,000 people.

It had just become independent under Eric Geary. And Eric Geary is an interesting fella because you'll see some aspects of him mirrored later on. He came to power in 1951 with the wave of universal suffrage. He was 29 years old at the time. He had previously been a worker organizer in Aruba and was expelled from the island for that very reason. He spent decades in politics as a champion of agricultural workers, but younger generations were not as excited about him.

They recognize his financial corruption, his pensioned for rigged elections, and of course his use of secret police that were repressive to the people. So as Grenaders making steps towards becoming independent, the people, the people are people did not want him to be the leader of independence. There were strikes against him even before the revolution. But see, Gary was carrying on this tradition that was set up by the British, whether he knew it or not. He may have had this radical start as a worker organizer, but he came to carry on colonial interests. You know, he started off as a union man, but he turned against the workers. And even the British at one point had been scared of him as an organisation.

and had trepidations about him as an independent leader, but they still chose him and preferred him at the risk of maybe a more radical version of him, leading an independent Grenada. And then came the New Jewel Movement. Now, the New Jewel Movement is actually a combination of two groups. You had the Movement for Assemblies of the People, which was founded by Maurice Bishop,

a lawyer who had studied in Britain, and you had the Joint Endeavour for Welfare, Education and Liberation, or Jewel, which was founded by Howard University Economic Student, Unison, Whiteman. They were also joined by Bernard Cord, an economics lecturer at U.S. and Augustine in Trinandah, so at first, in terms of their politics, they really wanted popular assemblies and that sort of thing. But actually, let me get into the background of the Caribbean left. You see, in the 1950s, there was an upheaval. You know, radicals had been shifting from the sort of Stalinism that had become popular in the post-World War II era

towards a more critical sort of Trotskyism or Maoism. Seahler James and George Padmore, both based in London, were already advocating independence for Africa and the Caribbean, rejecting the Stalinist idea that liberation should wait until after World War II. Celar James is an interesting figure politically to me because while he was ostensibly a Trotskyist, he was in many ways unorthodox in his approach to those politics. Yeah, Celar James' book, I'm trying to remember it's called Beyond A Boundary or Beyond The Boundary. Beyond the boundary. Yeah, it's a great book. It's the only book about cricket that I've ever read, and thus the only one that I've ever enjoyed. Not a big cricket appreciate it. But as a sports historian, that book was foundational.

to like how I how I approached my dissertation and like as such I've always had a really like a soft spot for him as someone who you know did sports for a living and academia for a living I saw like a really positive example of the role that both of those can play in like liberation struggles in his writing yeah yeah it's when I'd encourage everyone to read if you're looking for a book it's like his writing is very readable his historical writing like which I at the time of my life when I was in grad school I very much appreciated someone who wrote something that wasn't, like, self-consciously trying to be dense and impenetrable to make them seem intelligent. Like, his, his intelligence comes through just fine. Indeed, indeed. I've had a soft spot for him as well for some time, particularly after reading the Black Yakubines. Yeah.

He used to assign that one a lot. And I would say that the Caribbean left at the time also had a bit of a soft spot for him because they were heavily influenced by his writings. You know, in his 1956 pamphlet facing reality, which was about the Hungarian revolution, ended up becoming a profound influence on Western Indian radicals, as it had revealed the potential of workers' councils and done a lot to expose the authoritarianism of the Soviet model. This is something that Fundy wrote about and highlighted as he's given his sort of discussion of the origins and trajectory of the Caribbean left. So in the 1960s and 70s, radical thought across the Caribbean was

shaped by these more democratic socialist ideals. He had movements like Jamaica's Young Socialist League, Trinidad's new beginning movement, and Grenada's new jewel movements that were all inspired by James and by grassroots workers' councils rather than the typical Soviet orthodoxy. Of course, the Caribbean left was not immune to conflict or to division. There were conflicts between those who were more loyal to Stalinist or pro-Soviet positions, and that led to some splits within unions and political movements. Now, initially, the neutral movement was leaning in that participatory democratic direction, but eventually they ended up going into studying Marxism-Leninism more.

Now, really at first they mainly wanted Gary out, but later they went into Marxism and transformed the movement into a proper political party of the vanguard variety in an effort to unseat Gary. They started building some momentum and immediately faced consequences. In 1973, Bishop, Whiteman and others got beaten up and arrested by Gary's secret police multiple times. Bishop's own father was shot and killed by Gary's forces. Oh, wow. And the high schoolers that were also taking a stand against Gary at the time were facing

repression and violence. Now, with 1974, independence was one, but sadly, under Gary and his notorious secret police, which were, by the way, called the Mungooscan. Now, there was already suspicions of potential election fraud and, it wasn't helped by the fact that his mongoose gang was known to intimidate people. But in 1976, despite this fraud political landscape, Bishop won a leadership role as opposition and became known across the country, in our country as small as Grenada, as someone charismatic, personalable, relatable.

The New Jewel movement started to build a reputation for being connected to the people, engage with students, engage with pro bono work. in some cases, as I mentioned, some of them were lawyers. And they were youthful. They were bringing a youthful energy to the sort of old-god colonial era politics of Eric Gehry and his ilk. It's 5.23 p.m. One of your kids is asking for a snack. Another is building a fort out of your clean laundry.

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Clap if you think she's a witch. And it freaks you out. He has x-ray vision. How could I not follow him? Honestly, I got to follow me. He can see right through me. Listen to Crimless on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Stefan Curry, and this is Gentleman's Cut. I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful finished product. With every sip, you get a little something different. Visit gentlemen's cut bourbon.com or your nearest total wines or Bevmo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older. Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky.

For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit gentlemen's cut bourbon.com. Please enjoy responsibly. Hey, everybody, it's Chuck and Josh from the Stuff You Should Know podcast, and it's that time of year again when we knuckled down to do our annual holiday episodes. We collected our best past classic holiday episodes and compiled them into a 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist that the whole family can enjoy. That's right. Maybe you missed it the first time we detailed the history of Beanie Babies, Monopoly, or Yo-Yo's, and a whole lot more. So listen to the 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So the story of how the New Jewel movement came into power is actually a bit humorous to me.

On the 13th of March, 1979, Gary went to the UN meeting in New York that was happening at the time. And as the saying goes, when the cats are the way, the mice will play. In this case, while the cat was away, the New Jersey movement pulled off a coup. a completely bloodless coup. They took control of the army barracks and the radio. When they went on the radio, and this is the funny part to me, they told people to go

to the police stations and demand that they put up white flags of surrender. And the population was so anti-Gerry that they did it. They just walked up into the police stations and were like, yeah, put up these white flags and the police said, yeah, sure. That was that. That's how

the New Joe movement came into power. Yeah. This is such a fascinating. time in history, right? Like, I used to teach a class about culture and colonialism back in the day. And we would talk a lot about, like, this time period, like the post-windrush period where, like, Caribbean political culture was very influential even in the metropole, right? In Britain specifically, like, this is when we have, like, ska music and then punk music arriving from that, which is a serious political force in a 20th.

a century like it's easy for people to like to sniff at that or whatever but um and that's the reason i am the way i am uh so like i guess i have a fondness for it but also like the state's capacity for violence and surveillance hasn't caught up to the capacity for mass communication yet and so you have these movements which can mobilize a ton of people and the state isn't like all up in them with informers and like it can either respond as the Soviet Union did in Hungary, right, with tanks. That's where we get the word tanky from. Or it can crumble like by people turning up and turning the cops to surrender. It's just a fascinating like little two, three decade period in history before the state, I guess, recovers its advantage in terms of violence and

surveillance. Yeah. I'm over at this time because I'm over this time because I'm I mean, they didn't have the social media and stuff to connect people and, you know, advertise. They were having this protest or this action or this whatever. Yeah. But the networks were still there. You know, they were organic and they were motivated by a genuine sense that an alternative was actionable. Yeah. You know, I think we have this sort of 21st century malaise of cynicism.

It's like, that was tried before, you know? Yeah. Every time we look at something, we can just say, oh, that was tried before and they failed. When we look back at history, the people who tried those things, they didn't know if it was going to work out or not. They just tried it. I wouldn't be surprised if I was a fly on the wall on the day of this coup.

If the New Joe movement guys were just like, wait, what? That actually worked. Yeah, exactly. Not to take away from their planning and organization. and, you know, the genuine grassroots support they had is still as a swing. Yeah, totally. At some point, you have to, like, roll the dice, right,

and see how it goes. Like, in this case... The role of critical success, I'd see. Yeah, yeah. It's a natural 20. The Dungeons and Dragons turn. So I'd really like to know that out in this period. This is, like, the heyday of pirate radio, right?

Where you have people broadcasting, but, like, outside of state control. and it's a really interesting time for culture and music like SCAR music explicitly explicitly begins in an anti-racist way right like it calls itself two-tone of music

because bands were often look multiracial and like it's really interesting that we have this whole cultural movement which owes a lot to the Windrush generation but like you said it's questioning the both capitalist

and also Marxist orthodoxies in a way that I know I really wish I mean a lot of people do today don't get me wrong but I wonder if we could tell those people now that you'd have people who were like dedicated vanguard Marxists again like uh you know it just seems so sad in the way yeah I mean I think we could say the same thing about a lot of people's current politics I'm sure if you went back in the past and were like you know people are actually just trying to be bad wives right now in 2025. You want to talk to the women who had like no ability to open a bank account and

we're trying to escape financial abuse, domestic abuse, all these different things. And they're like, oh, you know, there's actually a whole internet trend of like, yeah, your husband should control all your finances actually. Yeah. I mean, of course, that kind of sentiment never went away, but it's popularization. Definitely debunks, I think, this sort of notion that progress, quote, unquote. is something that is inevitable or irreversible. Yeah, definitely.

I mean, you can even travel across the world and ensure that I can only imagine how that would be received in Rochava, right, to tell the friends in the women's movement that there are Western women who aspire to be tried wives. I mean, I'm sure they're aware. They have the internet, but yeah, it's certainly, yeah, this idea that we can only progress and move in one direction. Yeah.

That's what the New Jewel movement came into power. And upon getting to that position, they established the People's Revolutionary Government, or PRG, which is led now by the Prime Minister of Grenada, Maurice Bishop. They were considered legitimate, of course, because they did have the People's mandate, but they opted not to solidify that legitimacy with an election. and they also went on to ban other parties. So, in the next episode, I want to get into what exactly they did when they were in power, in broad strokes, all their hits and misses with the economy and politics over the course of their four years, and how it culminated in an internal split, multiple killings, and a U.S. invasion. But if you want the details on how all that played out, you'll have to tune in next time.

we'll get into the outcome of the PRG, the flaws, the revolution, its downfall, and where Grenada stands today. But before we wrap up, any final thoughts, James? I feel like I just had lots of them. I don't know. Yeah, this is a fascinating period. And like, now as much as there ever has been, it's a vital time for us to study this, right? Like, as the person who's taught in American schools and universities, this one doesn't come up very much. It's certainly not like in the required teaching syllabi in any way that I've taught. And I think as we return to like Monroe Doctrine 2.0 or whatever, whatever we're doing, the United States is doing in the Western Hemisphere right now, it's vital to understand the role it has played in suppressing progressive political movements. in the last century.

Yeah. I think, you know, as you mentioned, it's not really in the typical history and historical accounts that it's taught to students. It's just, I think I marvel sometimes at, you know, that's exactly how empire functions. Yeah.

You know, the acts forgets, but the tree remembers is the famous saint. So something like the U.S.'s operations in Grenada or anywhere else in the world, in all the many places they have intervened, I may not even muster a passing mention, a sentence even, in a historical class, in a history class, the United States. And yet it is pivotal to the histories and self-identities up to the present day of entire regions and peoples.

You know, it may be a footnote, if so much, in the standard curriculums in the United States, but it's one of the most recent and raw incidents of violence and traumats take place in the Caribbean. Yeah, absolutely. And they're not independent history. Yeah. When Trump was first assuming office this time, there was a brief moment when they were talking about returning to colonizing Panama, if you can cast your mind that far back.

He has flooded the zone quite successfully, but I do recall that. Yeah, I had been in Panama with too much. months before that. And I think the United States, a large portion of the population either doesn't know or has forgotten that, like, independence from American sort of neocolonialism is integral to Panamanian identity. Like, I don't think they'd realize quite how unwilling to accept going back to that Panamanian people were. Yeah. There was a long struggle. Yes. To, you know, equal to independence. I mean, even now, there's, you know, U.S. neocloonism is alive and well in Panama. In many ways.

Yeah. But what gains they have gained is, you know, so they're not willing to lose. Yeah, absolutely. And, yeah, I mean, the United States deports people through Panama, the Biden administration sent its secretary of Homeland Security to the inauguration

of the Panamanian president. The U.S. funds Panamanian deportations did under the Biden administration, including of people who have no criminal record. Like, we have effect. extraordinarily externalized our border regime to Panama in the way that we've also done to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, right? Like, I guess what I'm saying is I don't want people

to think that this is a one-off, that like either the Trump stuff is a massive leap from previous policy, it's a change in scale, not in kind, or that, you know, the United States hasn't done this before, and it has some history of doing this in the Western Hemisphere. Indeed. So on that rather depressing note we'll leave it here for it could happen here. But you can join us for the next episode

when we'll get into exactly what took place in Grenada and where Grenada stands today. Until then, all power to all the people. Peace. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, Coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions.

Thanks for listening. Have you ever listened to those true crime shows and found yourself with more questions than answers? Who catfish is a city? Is it even safe to snort human remains? Is that the plot of Footloose? I'm comedian Rory Scoville, and I'm here to tell you. tell you, Josh Dean and I have a new podcast that celebrates the amazing creativity of the world's dumbest criminals. It's called Crimeless, a true crime comedy podcast. Listen on the IHeart

Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Stefan Curry, and this is Gentleman's Cut. I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of, you know, developing the profile of this beautiful finished product. With every sip, you get a little something different. Visit gentlemen's cut bourbon.com or your nearest total wines or bevmo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older. Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky. For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit gentlemen's cuthuburn.com. Please enjoy responsibly. Hey everybody, it's Chuck and Josh from the Stuff You Should Know podcast, and it's that time of year again when we knuckle down to do our annual holiday episodes. We collected our best past classic holiday episodes and compiled them

into a 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist that the whole family can enjoy. That's right. Maybe you missed it the first time we detailed the history of Beanie Babies, Monopoly, or Yo-Yo's, and a whole lot more. So listen to the 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Nora Jones, and I love playing music with people so much that my podcast called Playing Along is back. I sit down with musicians from all musical styles to play songs together in an intimate setting. Every episode's a little different, but it all involves music and conversation

with some of my favorite musicians. Over the past two seasons, I've had special guests like Dave Grohl, Lave, Mavis Staples, Remy Wolf, Jeff Tweedy, really too many to name. And this season, I've sat down with Black Pumas, Alessia Kara, Sarah McLaughlin, and more.

Check out my new episode with John Legend. I feel like in a lot of ways our careers are paralleled in some ways, but they just never intersected for some reason. I know. slow we're just ordinary people we don't know which way to go listen to Nora Jones is playing along on the iHeart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts this is an iHeart podcast guaranteed human